City Council moves closer to affordable housing on Mercer Island
By JENNY MANNING
Mercer Island Reporter City Reporter
July 20, 2010
The Mercer Island City Council paid special attention to affordable housing on Monday evening as the
group considered two resolutions that contained agreements with A Regional Coalition for Housing, also
known as ARCH.
The 15-year-old coalition includes more than a dozen King County cities, including Mercer Island.
The Council unanimously approved the first resolution to authorize ARCH to fund affordable housing
projects through an agreement with the Mercer Island City Council in 2009. The decision effectively
implemented the Council’s decision last March, said Tim Steward, director of development services.
City Manager Rick Conrad described the action as a consolidation of the contract process. Instead of
writing separate contracts for each city in the coalition, developers would only need to sign one contract
for a project that may include several cities within the coalition.
“All the cities amended the original interlocal agreement to streamline the contracting process,” he said,
adding that it will apply to all 2009, 2010 and future contracts.
“Two years ago, Mercer Island made affordable housing a priority,” Conrad said.
At that point, the Council created a density bonus for developers who included affordable housing in their
projects.
The density bonus was a first step, he said. The Council took its second step on Monday evening by the
approval of a property tax exemption for affordable housing units.
The unanimously approved second resolution directed city staff to draft a new law to create a property tax
exemption program for affordable housing.
The Council will consider a draft of the affordable housing property tax exemption ordinance at its August
2 meeting.
Following a detailed discussion, augmented with insight from Deputy Mayor El Jahncke — the president
of Washington Capitol Management by day — the group decided to apply the program to the Town
Center area in addition to certain multi-family zoned areas adjacent to the Town Center. Both eight- and
12-year exemption periods include different affordability requirements for each time period, and the
program is only for rental units, with a “moderate” application fee imposed to cover city administration
expenses.
The Council chose to provide affordable housing on rental, not home purchases, because there is no
financial benefit for the developer, Conrad said, adding that government-subsidized home purchases is a
sticky grey area.
Mercer Island is an expensive place to live. According to hotpads.com, the median price of homes on the
market is $990,000 and the median monthly rental for a two-bedroom unit is $1,913. Island living may not
seem affordable for those making less than the area median income, or $85,600 a year, according to the
King County Housing Authority. But there are options.
The city’s actions this week and in recent years weren’t its first effort to support affordable housing on the
Island, said Conrad.
In the 1990s, the city changed its city code to legally allow accessory dwelling units, outlined in chapter
19 of the Mercer Island City Code.
Also known as “mother-in-laws,” these small, add-on units are often rented out at reasonable prices, he
said.
Ellsworth House, established in 1976, offers affordable living for seniors. The units are now owned and
operated by St. Andrew’s Housing Group.
Several apartment complexes on the Island also offer one-bedroom units at $700 per month and up,
although that level of monthly rent may still be too high for minimum-wage earners.
And soon there may be more options if and when developers take advantage of Mercer Island’s
affordable housing incentives.
Affordable housing units are defined as living space and utilities that cost no more than 30 percent of the
household income, said Rosenberg, communications director for King County Housing Authority.
“There’s a huge need,” she said, adding that “professional class” renters such as police, firefighters and
educators, who typically live in one- and two-person households, prefer to live within a 20- to 30-minute
commute of their workplace. If they can’t find housing within a reasonable commute, they’ll either look for
work elsewhere are spend more on transportation.
King County Housing Authority offers more than 18,000 housing units, about 4,400 of which are under the
workforce housing program for tenants who earn 50 to 80 percent of median income. And still the waitlist
is 10,000 strong.
Affordable housing information
A Regional Coalition for Housing
www.archhousing.org
16225 N.E. 87th St., Suite A-3
Redmond, WA 98052
(425) 861-3676
Ellsworth House
www.sahg.org
2720 76th Ave. S.E.
Mercer Island, WA 98040
(206) 232-7447
King Country Housing Authority
www.kcha.org/home/home.aspx
600 Andover Park W.
Seattle, WA 98188
(206) 574-1185
Mercer Island Reporter City Reporter Jenny Manning can be reached at jmanning@mireporter.com or (206) 232-1215.